NOVEMBER 12, 2024|
Photo – Emergency Manager Lenny Laymen tunes rain gauge – by Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
The National Weather Service is using rain gauges placed throughout the Mullen burn scar to improve its flash flood predictions.
In September of 2020, the Mullen Fire burned over 170,000 acres of southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. The flames destroyed plant life in and around the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, increasing the likelihood of dangerous and unpredictable flood-related debris flows.
In early 2023, Carbon County Emergency Manager Lenny Layman asked the Board of County Commissioners for authorization to purchase six wireless weather stations to be installed in the Mullen burn scar. The weather stations monitor precipitation in the burn scar and provide real-time information to the National Weather Service. The collected data will allow the agency to ground proof its weather predictions in remote parts of Carbon and Albany County.
The board denied Layman’s request due to concerns about the cost of maintaining and monitoring the stations.
Undeterred, Layman returned to the county commissioners later in the year with a grant to cover the entirety of the $55,000 cost to purchase, set up, and monitor the six rain gauges. This time, the board approved the emergency manager’s request.
Speaking at the June 6th, 2023, Board of County Commissioners meeting, Layman explained how the weather stations will provide residents with more precise flood forecasting.
Layman received the rain gauges late in 2023 and began setting them up in remote parts of the Mullen burn scar this past spring.
Speaking to Bigfoot99 in June, Layman explained that the solar-powered weather stations stand on tripods with instruments extending roughly ten feet above the ground. A small bucket electronically measures the amount of precipitation the area is receiving, which is wirelessly broadcast every 15 minutes to various state and local agencies.
Layman removed the six weather stations this fall and packed them away to be used next year.
Now, the National Weather Service must review the data collected by the gauges over the past six months. Senior Service Hydrologist Tony Anderson, with the National Weather Service, explained that the beacons didn’t produce much information this year because the season was fairly uneventful. Anderson said the time was spent fine-tuning the weather stations, so they produce better data next year.
Anderson said Layman was the driving force behind the rain gauge program. While the project originated in Carbon County, Anderson said he expects the program to eventually spread across the entire country.
Anderson said that rain gauges in burn zones produce better flash flood forecasting from the National Weather Service.
Anderson complimented Layman for spearheading the local weather station project. The senior hydrologist mentioned that the gauges can also be used in other parts of Wyoming affected by wildfires.
Next spring, Carbon County Emergency Manager Lenny Layman will select six new sites to install the wireless rain gauges, enhancing the effectiveness of the National Weather Service’s flash flood predictions.
